1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a medical equipment system configured to pick up object images in a luminal organ and thereby acquire and display picked-up images as well as to an operation method of the medical equipment system.
2. Description of the Related Art
Regarding the medical equipment system configured to pick up object images in a luminal organ and thereby acquire and display picked-up images, various such systems have been proposed conventionally.
For example, FIG. 12 and the like of Japanese Patent No. 4009639 describe how VBS images at all branch points on a route are reduced and displayed as branch thumbnail VBS images while displaying live images and VBS images of a bronchus on a navigation screen. Here, the VBS images are virtual endoscopic images of a body cavity tract in a subject, generated based on CT image data, which is image data on a three-dimensional region of the subject.
Also, Japanese Patent Application Laid-Open Publication No. 2002-17751 describes a technique for calculating a distance between a distal end of a rigid endoscope and a target site of the subject and displaying a magnified view of a three-directional projected image of a head portion shown in FIG. 10 in such a way as shown in FIG. 11 when the distal end of the rigid endoscope comes closer to the target site than a predetermined distance.
Incidentally, in observing a luminal organ with an endoscope, plural picked-up images of an observed object (e.g., a tumor) in the luminal organ may sometimes be acquired from different directions. As a method for displaying and checking plural picked-up images acquired in this way, a method for displaying the images in time series has been known conventionally.